Overwatch‘s newest healer, Moira, is now live across all platforms, along with a handful of tweaks to older heroes.

Moira is a Support hero whose playstyle most closely resembles that of Zenyatta, with a fairly even split between healing and damage dealing. Starting with her primary functions, Moira can heal allies with a close-ranged spray from her Biotic Grasp, or use it to snuck out an enemy’s life force. In addition to it locking on targets—not unlike Symmetra’s Photon Projector—the offensive function of Moira’s Biotic Grasp will restore her own health as she saps it out of targets.

The next tool in Moira’s arsenal is her Biotic Orb, boasting a similar duality in its design. After priming the ability, players can choose a damaging orb or healing orb. She then projects it slowly forward where it will bounce off surfaces, dealing out the chosen effect to the appropriate targets in a confined area. If ever Moira needs to get out of a fight to recharge her abilities, or close the distance on a target, she can use her Fade ability to teleport to a new location, not unlike a slower version of Tracer’s Blink.

Finally, Moira’s Coalescence ultimate ability shoots a massive, medium-ranged beam out of her hands that simultaneously heals allies while damaging foes. The beam doesn’t do as much damage as it looks like it would, but it is effective when fired indiscriminately into a crowd of both allies and enemies.

Players should note that, while Moira is currently live, she cannot be taken into Competitive Play for one week.

A small selection of hero rebalances accompanied Moira in this new update, with the focus once again on Mercy. The most notable changes to the healer are found in her Resurrect ability, which now has a short cast time, reduces her movement while casting, and can be interrupted by getting knocked back, stunned, or hacked. Fortunately, her Valkyrie ultimate ability now negates the cast time and movement reduction while active. Other hero changes to be found in the update include a damage buff for Ana, an indicator over Lucio’s head to convey his song while in Spectator mode, and a health bar added to Winston’s Barrier Projector.

The full patch notes detailing Moira, the hero rebalances, and all other changes that recently hit the game can be found below.

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

New Hero: Moira (Support):

Wielding both regenerative and degenerative technologies at her fingertips, Moira O’Deorain is Talon’s ambitious geneticist who seeks the knowledge to rewrite the building blocks of human life by any means necessary.

Moira’s cutting-edge capabilities make her a mobile healer and damage dealer capable of adapting to any situation. Her main attack is Biotic Grasp, which she can use to either heal allies or sap an enemy’s life force. Biotic Grasp’s primary fire sprays a cone of energy that heals all teammates within range, draining biotic energy while active, which will replenish slowly over time. Her alternate fire is a beam that tethers to enemies, dealing damage and siphoning health. Draining her foes’ health regenerates Moira’s biotic energy even faster, allowing more healing for her allies.

Her Biotic Orb ability launches a sphere of energy that bounces around the battlefield, healing nearby allies or damaging enemies until it dissipates. Fade enables Moira to disappear out of sight and sprint through the shadows, and makes her invulnerable for its duration. When Moira’s ultimate is ready to be unleashed, she can cast Coalescence—a powerful, long-range beam of chaotic energy that pierces through barriers to heal allies or damage enemies in its path.

While active, casting Resurrect does not reduce Mercy’s movement speed

Developer Comment: We feel that Mercy’s recent rework has been successful, but her Resurrect ability still feels too strong and frustrating to play against. Now that it has a cast time, enemies are more able to counter the ability. However, Resurrect will cast instantly when Valkyrie is active. This should make her feel powerful when she transforms on the battlefield.

Winston

Barrier Projector

Now displays a health bar

Developer Comment: This change will help both Winston’s allies and enemies know how much more damage his shield can absorb from oncoming attacks.

USER INTERFACE

General

Made several visual adjustments to revamp the spectator mode HUD including an improved spectator mode UI, a new unit frame style, and an animated ultimate indicator

BUG FIXES

General

Fixed a bug that prevented player portrait borders from loading in the Hero Select screen or on the Match Status screen

Fixed a bug that prevented players from adding spectators to a Deathmatch game from within the Custom Game lobby

A.I.

Fixed a bug that prevented bots from respawning when they were moved to a different slot or team within the Custom Game lobby

Fixed a bug that prevented the Sombra bot from hacking health packs

Fixed an issue that affected the Bastion bot’s movement when defending Point A on Eichenwalde

Fixed a bug that prevented bots from defending Point A on certain maps

Heroes

Fixed a bug that caused Ana’s sidearm to emit a bright light when viewed in the Hero Gallery

Fixed an issue that prevented Ganymede from making appropriate roadrunner noises when Bastion’s Dune Buggy skin was equipped

Fixed a bug that prevented Mercy’s ultimate icon from displaying correctly when hacked by Sombra

Fixed an issue causing Roadhog’s Chain Hook to latch on to enemy players for longer than intended

Fixed an animation bug that caused Widowmaker’s knees to snap together when jumping

Fixed an issue that caused the toy robot in Zarya’s Mystery Gift emote to inflate when she tore it apart

Fixed an issue that prevented Junkrat’s RIP-Tire from casting properly while jumping

Maps

Fixed a bug that caused the incorrect stage of the map (e.g. Sanctum on Nepal) to be displayed during the hero selection phase when playing on Nepal and Lijiang Tower

Fixed a bug that prevented the progress bar from displaying briefly when players reached checkpoints on Escort and Escort/Assault maps

Fixed an issue that prevented the targeting UI on Doomfist’s Seismic Slam from functioning correctly when aiming at the spinning turbine blade near the last point of Junkertown

Fixed a bug that caused some objects to uncharacteristically fly across the room when shot on Horizon Lunar Colony

About Nick Plessas

Nick didn’t start gaming until mid-2006. Once his parents finally allowed a console into the house, it was all uphill from there. Starting out with a PS2, he grew an affinity for Sony consoles and moved on to the PS3, and now the PS4. He keeps his gaming palette wide, but, gun to his head, he’d have to say shooters are his genre of choice. Find him on Twitter @idole808

Overwatch’s 26th hero is here and ready to heal

Overwatch‘s newest healer, Moira, is now live across all platforms, along with a handful of tweaks to older heroes.

Moira is a Support hero whose playstyle most closely resembles that of Zenyatta, with a fairly even split between healing and damage dealing. Starting with her primary functions, Moira can heal allies with a close-ranged spray from her Biotic Grasp, or use it to snuck out an enemy’s life force. In addition to it locking on targets—not unlike Symmetra’s Photon Projector—the offensive function of Moira’s Biotic Grasp will restore her own health as she saps it out of targets.

The next tool in Moira’s arsenal is her Biotic Orb, boasting a similar duality in its design. After priming the ability, players can choose a damaging orb or healing orb. She then projects it slowly forward where it will bounce off surfaces, dealing out the chosen effect to the appropriate targets in a confined area. If ever Moira needs to get out of a fight to recharge her abilities, or close the distance on a target, she can use her Fade ability to teleport to a new location, not unlike a slower version of Tracer’s Blink.

Finally, Moira’s Coalescence ultimate ability shoots a massive, medium-ranged beam out of her hands that simultaneously heals allies while damaging foes. The beam doesn’t do as much damage as it looks like it would, but it is effective when fired indiscriminately into a crowd of both allies and enemies.

Players should note that, while Moira is currently live, she cannot be taken into Competitive Play for one week.

A small selection of hero rebalances accompanied Moira in this new update, with the focus once again on Mercy. The most notable changes to the healer are found in her Resurrect ability, which now has a short cast time, reduces her movement while casting, and can be interrupted by getting knocked back, stunned, or hacked. Fortunately, her Valkyrie ultimate ability now negates the cast time and movement reduction while active. Other hero changes to be found in the update include a damage buff for Ana, an indicator over Lucio’s head to convey his song while in Spectator mode, and a health bar added to Winston’s Barrier Projector.

The full patch notes detailing Moira, the hero rebalances, and all other changes that recently hit the game can be found below.

PATCH HIGHLIGHTS

New Hero: Moira (Support):

Wielding both regenerative and degenerative technologies at her fingertips, Moira O’Deorain is Talon’s ambitious geneticist who seeks the knowledge to rewrite the building blocks of human life by any means necessary.

Moira’s cutting-edge capabilities make her a mobile healer and damage dealer capable of adapting to any situation. Her main attack is Biotic Grasp, which she can use to either heal allies or sap an enemy’s life force. Biotic Grasp’s primary fire sprays a cone of energy that heals all teammates within range, draining biotic energy while active, which will replenish slowly over time. Her alternate fire is a beam that tethers to enemies, dealing damage and siphoning health. Draining her foes’ health regenerates Moira’s biotic energy even faster, allowing more healing for her allies.

Her Biotic Orb ability launches a sphere of energy that bounces around the battlefield, healing nearby allies or damaging enemies until it dissipates. Fade enables Moira to disappear out of sight and sprint through the shadows, and makes her invulnerable for its duration. When Moira’s ultimate is ready to be unleashed, she can cast Coalescence—a powerful, long-range beam of chaotic energy that pierces through barriers to heal allies or damage enemies in its path.

While active, casting Resurrect does not reduce Mercy’s movement speed

Developer Comment: We feel that Mercy’s recent rework has been successful, but her Resurrect ability still feels too strong and frustrating to play against. Now that it has a cast time, enemies are more able to counter the ability. However, Resurrect will cast instantly when Valkyrie is active. This should make her feel powerful when she transforms on the battlefield.

Winston

Barrier Projector

Now displays a health bar

Developer Comment: This change will help both Winston’s allies and enemies know how much more damage his shield can absorb from oncoming attacks.

USER INTERFACE

General

Made several visual adjustments to revamp the spectator mode HUD including an improved spectator mode UI, a new unit frame style, and an animated ultimate indicator

BUG FIXES

General

Fixed a bug that prevented player portrait borders from loading in the Hero Select screen or on the Match Status screen

Fixed a bug that prevented players from adding spectators to a Deathmatch game from within the Custom Game lobby

A.I.

Fixed a bug that prevented bots from respawning when they were moved to a different slot or team within the Custom Game lobby

Fixed a bug that prevented the Sombra bot from hacking health packs

Fixed an issue that affected the Bastion bot’s movement when defending Point A on Eichenwalde

Fixed a bug that prevented bots from defending Point A on certain maps

Heroes

Fixed a bug that caused Ana’s sidearm to emit a bright light when viewed in the Hero Gallery

Fixed an issue that prevented Ganymede from making appropriate roadrunner noises when Bastion’s Dune Buggy skin was equipped

Fixed a bug that prevented Mercy’s ultimate icon from displaying correctly when hacked by Sombra

Fixed an issue causing Roadhog’s Chain Hook to latch on to enemy players for longer than intended

Fixed an animation bug that caused Widowmaker’s knees to snap together when jumping

Fixed an issue that caused the toy robot in Zarya’s Mystery Gift emote to inflate when she tore it apart

Fixed an issue that prevented Junkrat’s RIP-Tire from casting properly while jumping

Maps

Fixed a bug that caused the incorrect stage of the map (e.g. Sanctum on Nepal) to be displayed during the hero selection phase when playing on Nepal and Lijiang Tower

Fixed a bug that prevented the progress bar from displaying briefly when players reached checkpoints on Escort and Escort/Assault maps

Fixed an issue that prevented the targeting UI on Doomfist’s Seismic Slam from functioning correctly when aiming at the spinning turbine blade near the last point of Junkertown

Fixed a bug that caused some objects to uncharacteristically fly across the room when shot on Horizon Lunar Colony

About Nick Plessas

Nick didn’t start gaming until mid-2006. Once his parents finally allowed a console into the house, it was all uphill from there. Starting out with a PS2, he grew an affinity for Sony consoles and moved on to the PS3, and now the PS4. He keeps his gaming palette wide, but, gun to his head, he’d have to say shooters are his genre of choice. Find him on Twitter @idole808